We are now over two years into the programme for Government yet the transfer of specialist disability services from the Department of Health to the Department of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has still not taken place. Yesterday the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, confirmed that this transfer would take place on 1 March next year but failed to clarify whether the €65 million in one-off funding which was promised in September's budget would be distributed to services before this date. Both Ministers, Deputy Donnelly and Deputy O'Gorman, have told services that the release of the funding is depending on the transfer. These services are in a precarious situation with increased energy costs, operational costs with staff leaving for better pay and conditions elsewhere and the services need clarity on the release of the funding. If its release is depending on the transfer of services which we are told will not happen until 1 March 2023 that will have serious and devastating consequences in regard to the delay these services are facing into the new year without much-needed funding. I know the Tánaiste aspires to higher offices at the end of the week, but will he ensure that the one-off funding is immediately released and that the moneys will include community and voluntary services which are not section 38 and 39 organisations?
Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
I can confirm there is no link between the release of the €65 million to the disability sector and the transfer of functions. It is with the HSE at the moment. I have signed off on the approach. The HSE is now calculating the exact amounts for each of those organisations. I expect to have a detailed response from the HSE shortly. We will then communicate with each of the organisations as to the amounts they will get.
I have already raised with the Tánaiste the Report of the Special Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality. One of the key recommendations is to have a constitutional referendum to expand the definition of family beyond the marital family. I wish to raise a specific issue around treatment of cohabitants that could be addressed by Government through legislation. Some time ago my colleague, Deputy Kelly, raised the awful situation of Johnny O’Meara who last year tragically lost his partner of 20 years and the mother of his children, Michelle Batey, who died of breast cancer. Upon her death John became starkly aware of the abject lack of supports for him and his children simply because he and Michelle had never married.
Within the Seanad Senator Wall has been pioneering our labour legislation, the Social Welfare (Surviving Cohabitant’s Pension) Bill, which would ensure that the surviving partner of a cohabiting couple would be entitled to a widow or widower’s pension. Will the Government commit to bridging the legislative gap in inequality to ensure protection for cohabitants in these situations, pending the holding of a referendum to recognise a more inclusive definition of family?
We will examine that. I do not think finding a solution should have to wait until we have a referendum. I am not an expert in this area of the law whatsoever but I know in other jurisdictions there is the concept of a common law wife or husband whereby a person was not married but was de facto married and could acquire certain rights in that regard. Not being at all an expert on this area of the law, I will say no more other than that we will examine the Bill. If we can support it, we will.
The Tánaiste and the Minister for Health will both be aware of the survey from the Irish Cancer Society that was released today. It acknowledged once again the huge financial pressure placed on a person and a person's family who has experienced a cancer diagnosis. Last year the Social Democrats brought a motion to the Dáil on the cost of cancer. We were relieved to see the Government listen to the Social Democrats and agree to the lifting of inpatient hospital charges. However, we can and should go further. We need to see medical cards for every cancer patient, the removal of hospital carparking charges, the abolition of prescription charges and absolutely do away with any debt collection agencies going after cancer patients who are experiencing this horrendous diagnosis and the costs that follow.
I saw the report. We are acutely aware of the costs for cancer patients and indeed for patients across the country. We have taken numerous steps. We reduced the threshold for the drug payment scheme from €114 to €80, we abolished pediatric hospital charges and we will abolish adult hospital charges now. In the next few months, we will be issuing GP cards to an additional 500,000 men, women and children. We will continue with the relentless focus on reducing costs for patients right across the board. In regard to the call for cancer patients having medical cards, the consistent advice we have from an expert review on this issue is that we should not create a hierarchy of diseases such that a person with one disease should get a medical card and a person with another disease should not. We are progressing on an age basis for GP cards and on an income basis with a view to reducing radically and continuing to reduce costs for all patients.
As we speak 35 children are being denied a drug because of the insatiable greed of a pharmaceutical company. Vertex, which is based in Ireland, is denying 35 children this vital drug. It has the Government and the HSE over a barrel. More importantly, it has the families over a barrel.
This company has made billions of dollars in profits yet it is insatiable for more profits. Can the Minister give the families comfort over Christmas in regard to access to this drug? I understand the health technology assessment is going to be done but it could take up to six months before it is processed. These children do not have six months - it is as simple as that. These children need to be given access to this drug as soon as possible. It is morally wrong. It is corporate incompetence and it is corrupt that companies like this can have governments and families over a barrel.
My view on this is the same as the Deputy’s, which is that these 35 children should have been given this drug at the same time as everybody else. It is very clear. I met my Dutch counterpart in Brussels last weekend and we discussed CF drugs and this very company. It is not just in Ireland that this behaviour is being seen. The Deputy will be aware of a very strongly worded letter which issued from the consultants and of their views on how this company was behaving. We need to get this drug for these 35 children as quickly as possible. I can assure the Deputy that the Department and I are working very closely with the HSE to ensure the processes that have to be gone through are gone through as quickly as they possibly can be. We want to get this drug to these children as quickly as possible. We are aware of the impact it has. We will continue to focus on that.
Last week, I stood here and highlighted the story of little Jacob McMahon from Wellingtonbridge, County Wexford. Jacob is nine months old. He was born with complex medical needs and requires 24-hour nursing care, and he was approved for that. Having spent the first four months of his life in hospital, he has been five months at home with his family, a family of six children and two adults. The parents get two hours' sleep a night and are currently trying to run a business while looking after Jacob. Having represented this case to all of the agencies, prior to the first Question on Promised Legislation and since, I have received no response. They are still without care and trying to operate with six children and to run a business on two hours sleep a night. Are we at a stage in our health service where every family has to litigate to achieve their entitlements?
That is not a situation that anybody would want to find themselves in. If the Deputy sends me on the details, I will certainly take it up with the HSE and see where that is. My understanding is they need home nursing rather than home care in order to provide medical care at home. I might talk to the Deputy further about that.
Earlier, the Tánaiste spoke about the Garda Síochána and the great job they do. I support that and we must all support the Garda. However, the Dickensian condition of Clonmel Garda station has been raised in this House for the last 40 years, if not more. It is not fit for purpose. The Department of Justice has been playing games. It was bundled as a group with two other stations, one at Sligo and one at Macroom. Now, the Department has decided in its wisdom to bundle it in with a new children's court building. They are two different animals altogether. There are contractors and consultants out there who do Garda stations, but a Courts Service building is very different in regard to aesthetics but also building function. Will the Government get it out of this bundle and get the Garda station built?
We have a site that was an Army barracks and it is has been invested in, thankfully, although we should never have lost the Army, and we also have planning permission and design. All we need is to get the building done. The conditions are simply appalling. The Tánaiste has been there and he has seen it. It should never have been bundled with the Courts Service building, which is only a trick of the loop to delay it further.
I had a number of discussions about this with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, before she went on maternity leave. There are a number of Garda station projects that are overdue and that we really need to get on with - Clonmel is one and there is another in Laois and a few others in different parts of the country.
It has been 50 years.
The Deputy may be right that part of the problem is that it got bundled with other projects that are not similar. I am determined to work with the Minister for Justice and the incoming Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to get those projects to tender next year, and that is definitely the objective.
Freedom of the media is essential in a democracy and people are free to choose whatever medium they want to get their information from. In most villages of Ireland, people can get newspapers from whatever country they want to in these islands and they can certainly get television channels from wherever they want. People are concerned about rising prices but if newspaper prices go up, they can stop buying them and if a Sky or Virgin subscription goes up, they can stop paying it. What they cannot do is lawfully stop paying the television licence. It is paid in return for public service broadcasting and it raises €200 million per year, all of which goes to RTÉ. TG4, which most people think provides public service broadcasting, is funded directly from the Exchequer. Given people are concerned about rising prices, will the Tánaiste commit that the licence fee will not be going up for the remainder of this Government?
I can certainly say we have no plans to increase the licence fee. I cannot make that commitment for the duration of the Government but there are certainly no plans at the moment to increase it. I appreciate that it is de facto a compulsory charge. Anyone who has a television has to pay it, although, in fact, people who do not have a television even though they are watching the services, perhaps on an iPad or different device, do not have to pay it but are still availing of those services. The main thing we want to do is find a way to increase collection. I understand about 10% or 15% non-payment is the current issue, plus the cost of collection. What I would like to see is a better means of collection-----
In return for what?
-----which would mean we would not have to increase it for a number of years. That is being worked on at the moment.
Yesterday, we saw a new statistic released which showed exports from Northern Ireland to Great Britain have gone up by 13% in the last year, exports to this jurisdiction have gone up by 23% and exports to the rest of the European Union have gone up by 18%, which would give the impression that the protocol is working quite well. In this regard, I ask the Tánaiste what efforts are being made and will continue to be made in the new year to secure a deal between the European Union and Great Britain for the speedy, effective and consistent implementation of the protocol.
I thank Deputy Richmond for once again raising this very important issue. I agree the statistics that he articulated would indicate that the economy in Northern Ireland is outperforming other parts of the United Kingdom when it comes to trade. Perhaps that is linked to the advantages of the protocol, which give Northern Ireland access to the European Single Market but also give it access to the Great Britain market. Coming to an agreement on the protocol is a priority. I appreciate the political sensitivities around it and the opposition that is there from the unionist community in particular. We are very keen to work, through the European Union, with the UK Government to amend or modify the protocol so it can become acceptable to both communities, and all communities, in Northern Ireland, thus facilitating the re-establishment of the Assembly and Executive, which is long overdue.
In Dublin South-Central there is a huge under-provision of second level education. Figures from the Department of Education show that in Dublin 8 alone there are about 3,500 primary school pupils and there are currently second level places for less than a third of them. A new school is badly needed. There is an old SIPTU college site on South Circular Road, with an under-used Office of Public Works, OPW, warehouse abutting it. The college is already zoned for educational use. There is a Dublin City Council site on Marrowbone Lane. These are two sites that could easily be used to address this imbalance. Can the Government commit to providing a new school to address this imbalance? More widely, we need to look at how we do school planning because it just is not working.
We have a number of school planning areas throughout the country and, as the Deputy knows, we have 4,000 schools in totality. It is important that we provide an education to every single child. It is a constitutional right for all children, including children with additional needs. I can speak to the Deputy in regard to the sites in his constituency.
I would like to take this opportunity on my behalf and that of Deputy Imelda Munster to add our condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Private Seán Rooney, who died carrying out peacekeeping for the UN in Lebanon. He made the ultimate sacrifice, as did Private Michael McNeela in 1989, who was also from Dundalk. Seán Rooney grew up in Dundalk. He lived there until about the time of his junior certificate and he has huge family connections with the Defence Forces. His home unit is the 27th Infantry Battalion in Dundalk. He and his mother relocated to Donegal when he was 15 but he spent a considerable amount of his life in Dundalk and had relocated back to Dundalk.
Our thoughts are also with the injured, in particular with Private Shane Kearney. We know that there will be an investigation at some stage. My thoughts are with the family of Private Rooney, in particular, with his mother, Natasha, his grandparents Eugene and Rachel, whom I would know very well, and a considerable number of his friends and family friends who have contacted me this morning. It is completely devastating news. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.
The programme for Government is committed to supporting childcare, and a great deal has been done in supporting the sector, parents and operators in respect of costs. Concerns have been raised with me by a number of small rural services about the early childhood care and education, ECCE, funded seasonal preschools. They outlined to me concerns about possible closure. One preschool, for example, is attached to a primary school and it feels it may not be able to open next September based on the core funding model. I acknowledge the very significant funding that has been provided for day services, for example. There is a great diversity in the different services being offered and there is room there and the need for all of them. We need to see these smaller childcare services continue in our rural areas. If they close, there are no alternatives available to people. Is there a way of ensuring these vital services continue?
I thank the Deputy for his question. We are moving towards a model where childcare will be largely funded by the State and will be much more affordable for parents. That is something that is welcomed by everybody in this House. Some details will have to be worked out and I am aware of some small providers, in particular, who have a different cost model based on the fact they are small and it costs more to run a small organisation or business per client, per customer or per child than would be the case for a larger business. I know the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, is keen to engage with the sector to try to iron out any difficulties that arise, with a view to keeping services open.
I also want to be associated with the mark of respect to the family of the late Seán Rooney who died serving the peace process in the Army. This is very sad day.
I want to raise a point about the four schools in Ardee, three of which have DEIS status. One of them, Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire, had its appeal for DEIS status refused. This outcome means the 288 girls in this school are excluded from additional education supports and, indeed, school meals. These benefits apply to the other primary schools in the town of Ardee. Indeed 60%, six out of ten, of these girls have siblings in other DEIS schools. The appeal of the school has been turned down, but can a way be found to review this decision? It seems to me and to the families that there appears to be a gender inequality somewhere, which may be unintended but is there nevertheless, whereby these 288 girls are denied what all the boys in the primary schools in Ardee have.
As the Deputy will be aware, one in four schools now have DEIS status. This number was significantly increased in the budget. There was also significant expansion of the hot school meals programme both to primary and post-primary schools, along with a number of other different initiatives to help parents who have schoolgoing children.
On DEIS, an appeal mechanism is there and I understand the school the Deputy is referring to has already appealed. I can bring this matter to the attention of the Department if the Deputy wishes speak to me on it afterwards.
I have been contacted by a mother in Roscommon whose child requires occupational therapy and speech and language therapy but is not receiving it. In her email she said it is one year since the provision of services transferred from the Brothers of Charity to the HSE. During this year the situation has been intolerable for her family, with having to beg at ministerial level for services.
Her child is one of thousands, and in our own community healthcare organisation, CHO 2, 1,600 children are waiting for that initial contact from the disability network teams. Vacancies are obviously rife right across those network teams. If the network teams cannot be staffed, and many of them are yet to be staffed, an alternative needs be found to ensure these children get the services they need, when they need them, and not years later. That is not to mention the thousands of children in Roscommon, Galway and throughout the State who are waiting for various services under primary care. A way has to be found if these network teams cannot be staffed.
We are very aware there are far too many children who are still waiting. Considerable progress was made in reducing the numbers waiting from more than 70,000 down to the low 50,000s. Unfortunately, the HSE is complying with a court ruling around assessment of need, which means that progress has stopped for now, and we are aware that a great amount of resources, unfortunately, had been pulled into the assessment of need area. These resources, from a policy perspective, should be deployed in treating the children themselves.
Nonetheless, the Deputy has hit the nail on the head in that the single biggest challenge and opportunity is hiring people into the progressing disability services, PDS, teams on the ground. We are finalising a new strategy with the HSE, and from my perspective, the direction I have given to the Department and to the HSE is that the single greatest priority is to find ways to attract in these therapists and to get these children the care they need.
I wish to raise with the Tánaiste again the issue of the continued persecution and prosecution of Irish mothers and their children in the family law courts, the degree to which an alien resolution is attempting to be imposed on the law here, for which there is no basis, and the urgent need for an inquiry into the effects of this on women and children and to make an interim arrangement whereby the persecution and prosecution is discontinued. This has resulted, in many cases, in arrests and imprisonment.
The Deputy has raised this matter before, and while I will let the Tánaiste respond in a moment, I wish to say that I have repeatedly pointed out to the Deputy the separation of powers. He is raising serious allegations across the border. I am not taking issue that he may be raising a serious issue, but the manner in which he is raising it means I will have to draw his attention once again to the separation of powers.
The courts are crossing the border.
I thank the Deputy and I appreciate that he has raised this issue before and has raised it personally with me. I also appreciate the separation of powers between the courts and the Legislature. I know that this is a matter that he has a great deal of concern about and my adviser will engage with him further on it and with the Minister for Justice.
I raise the lack of dental care for medical card patients. I have raised this matter so often with this Government that it is deeply frustrating for me. I can only imagine how bad it is for patients affected. For almost two years now, patients with medical cards cannot access dental care. This includes patients who are seriously ill with diabetes and even with cancer.
To give an example, Drogheda, the largest town in Ireland, has not one single dentist treating patients with medical cards. That is replicated across the State. No matter how often the Minister states he is working to resolve this, there seems to be absolutely no urgency about it. The Irish Dental Association said recently that the previous time it had met with the Minister was in a Zoom meeting in 2021. At what stage do people have to wait for these services?
On top of that there are tens and tens of thousands of schoolchildren who have not even had their first routine check-up. It is shameful. When is this going to be resolved? Does the Minister have a date so that people can have access to proper dental health care?
I thank the Deputy. As she will be aware, we allocated a great deal of money into the scheme. We have significantly increased the fees this year. The reality is the dentists themselves are withdrawing from the scheme. We can only presume that is because they make more money from private practice than they make from treating the public patients.
The scheme is not fit for purpose and I have already told the Minister that.
We are investing further into the scheme. The Deputy will also be aware from the budget that I have allocated funding for a national service now for early years oral health dental intervention for children, which will make a big difference. This is not to detract from the very real problems that patients with medical cards are having in trying to access services. We are aware of it and are allocating more and more money into the services, but at the moment many dentists are simply making more money from private practice than from treating public patients. We will continue to engage.
I will raise the very serious issue of the availability of medicines. A number of pharmacists who are finding it extremely difficult to source medicines have contacted me in the past couple of days. Two pharmacists informed me this morning that they are out of penicillin. There is a virus circulating at present for which penicillin is the best medicine but they are finding it impossible to get it. Pharmacists clearly said to me that the lack of medicines in the Twenty-six Counties is due to the amounts reimbursed by the HSE. I will cite one example given to me by a pharmacist yesterday, that of phenergan, a psychiatric drug. The reimbursement for that drug in our jurisdiction is €2.08 while in Northern Ireland it is €8.07. Manufacturers are making economic decisions not to supply us with essential medicines. The reimbursement for drugs needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency.
The Department and the HSE are aware of various reports coming in from pharmacists. It is a matter they are looking at and taking seriously. It is kept under constant observation. I have not yet received reports from the Department around concerns at a national level regarding drugs but I am hearing exactly what the Deputy raised. I will raise the issue again with the Department today.
Since being elected to the House, I have always been an advocate for the home help services. I see at first hand the great work they carry out throughout west Cork. I met a large number of home help workers in Clonakilty last week. To say they are frustrated is an understatement. They work long, poorly regulated hours. They aid Clonakilty home help, which serves areas east of Rosscarbery, such as Ardfield and Timoleague, to the Bandon boundary but, for whatever reasons, they are not getting their new contracts. This is different from the home helps in other surrounding areas who are working under better conditions with their new contracts. The workers are pleading with their bosses for the new contracts only to be fobbed off continuously. These home helps deserve better, as do the people of Clonakilty. The workers I met are so frustrated they said they would issue strike action in the new year. Will the Tánaiste communicate to the HSE this wrong being done to so many good, genuine home help workers in the Clonakilty area? Will he get the HSE to give them their long-awaited contracts?
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Some 56,000 people in Ireland currently receive home care. I thank all the home care workers the length and breadth of the country for the phenomenal work they do on a daily basis. I assume the Deputy is referring to the private providers.
No, the HSE.
Okay. The HSE tender is currently being renewed. It was meant to be in place on 1 January. I was informed yesterday that the new tender will not be in place until 1 March. The pay rates for home care workers working for the HSE start at €16.50 per hour plus mileage, which is much more than that paid by private providers. We want to ensure that we get this tender right. We also need to ensure that it will be stated in the tender, where home care is being provided through private providers, that the living wage will have to be paid, in addition to mileage. I will also engage with the Deputy offline on this.
The powerful slogan taken on by the Iranian uprising against Iran's theocracy is: Woman, Life, Freedom. The call has also been used worldwide by those showing solidarity with activists in Iran who are fighting this brutal, oppressive regime. The revolt was provoked by the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the religious morality police for wearing the compulsory hijab loosely. The crackdown and oppression by the regime in response has been incredible. Approximately 500 protestors have been killed, including 68 children, and around 20,000 protestors have been arrested. On Monday of last week, we saw the second execution of an anti-Iranian Government protestor in less than a week.
Will the Tánaiste publicly condemn the Iranian authorities for their actions in repressing this uprising and for their violent crackdown? Will he express outrage regarding the executions of Majidreza Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari and call for an end to the executions? Will he denounce the systematic oppression of women and ethnic minorities?
I will take the last two speakers together.
Everybody in the House will be aware that a nine-year-old boy, Alejandro Miszan, was ravaged by a restricted breed of dog in Enniscorthy, which left him with life-changing injuries. I ask that the resources given to dog wardens be looked at. There are 55,000 households in Wexford. Statistics show that 49% of householders own a pet or dog, which is 27,000 households in Wexford. We have 1.6 whole-time equivalent dog wardens. I ask that the injuries of that child not be in vain.
Coast Guard volunteers selflessly give their time for others as part of Ireland's fourth blue light emergency response. In coastal communities throughout Ireland, and in Clare, their role cannot be understated. The Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association is an organisation with which this House is now very familiar. Members of its national executive appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. Its mission is very simple. It has two asks: a truly independent inquiry into the management of the Irish Coast Guard chaired by a retired High Court judge and the appointment of a permanent director of the Irish Coast Guard. Will the Government heed its calls and engage with it properly and meaningfully, as promised, to make these aims a reality?
I will take the questions in order. In reply to Deputy Paul Murphy, I express the Government's solidarity with the people of Iran, who are struggling to see their democracy restored. They have not experienced democracy since the Shah was reinstated and Mohammad Mosaddegh taken down in the 1950s. They are demanding basic and equal rights for women and, in some cases, ethnic minorities and people from LGBT backgrounds. We are in full solidarity with the Iranian people in their efforts to change their country for the better. We condemn the crackdown. We also believe that the executions are absolutely wrong and should stop.
On Deputy Verona Murphy's question, I express my horror and sadness about what happened to Alejandro in Enniscorthy. I have seen the pictures of this young boy. It is horrible to think about what has happened to this beautiful young boy. I hope he makes a recovery. His injuries will be life-changing but it is to be hoped he will recover as much as is possible, given the injuries he has endured. A Garda investigation is under way, which is very important. I will not comment on that. There will be a review of our laws around dangerous dogs and dangerous breeds, which is necessary. The point the Deputy made on dog wardens is very valid. We can have any laws and regulations we like but if we do not have people to enforce them, they are not worth anything. We will certainly make the issue of the proper resourcing of local authorities around dog wardens part of the review as well.
In response to Deputy Wynne, I am a great supporter of the Coast Guard. I had the honour to work with its members for a number of years when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. There are some Commission on the Defence Forces proposals to bring the Coast Guard together with the Defence Forces, which we are examining at present. I do not want to give the Deputy a definite "Yes" or "No" answer to her question, but I heard what she had to say. I will certainly make the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Defence aware that it was raised in the Chamber. They may come back to the Deputy directly.